Tainted Swissport chases state contract

● Swissport, which is at the centre of alleged corruption at South African Airways (SAA) unearthed by the commission of inquiry into state capture, says it disagrees with acting chief justice Raymond Zondo’s findings and that is why it is bidding for a tender at SA’s airports.

The most-mentioned company in the first part of Zondo’s report, Swissport confirmed it would respond to a tender for licensing to provide ground-handling services at airports under the Airports Company SA (Acsa).

Swissport said it was well within its rights to continue doing business with state entities as it had not been prosecuted or found guilty of wrongdoing.

According to Zondo’s report, Swissport participated in an elaborate scheme to hide payments to crucial SAA decision-makers who awarded Swissport a lucrative contract.

The scheme, the inquiry found, was facilitated through businessman Vuyisile Ndzeku and his partner Daluxolo Peter.

The commission found that Swissport had paid R28.5m to Ndzeku’s company, JM Aviation, as a “facilitation” fee for the company landing a five-year ground-handling contract with SAA worth more than R1bn.

The commission said the money paid to Ndzeku benefited key decision-makers at the national airline such as then SAA Technical (SAAT) board chair Yakhe Kwinana and SAAT procurement boss Nontsasa Memela.

Kwinana, Memela, Ndzeku and Peter have been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority for possible prosecution for corruption and fraud as well as to the South African Revenue Service.

When Swissport was confronted by Zondo investigators to explain what services JM Aviation was paid for, the company said all documents relating to the transaction, including e-mails, had disappeared.

“There was not a single e-mail. There were no meeting notices, no invoices, no slide shows, no logs, no design documents — absolutely nothing,” said Zondo’s report. “It is extremely unlikely that a genuine agreement, in which Swissport was to receive services worth R28.5m, would have generated nothing more than some handwritten notes which were subsequently thrown away.

“The only reasonable inference to draw from the evidence is that Swissport was in dire straits when SAA terminated its monthto-month ground-handling services contract in February 2016.”

For their role in the scheme, Ndzeku, who was a shareholder in Swissport, and Peter got their cut from the loot, the report said.

“If Swissport paid this amount [R28.5m] in order to secure the ground-handling contract with SAA and knew that it would be used to pay bribes to SAA and SAAT officials, then it committed an act of corruption,” Zondo concluded.

The company said it “disagrees with the commission’s conclusions regarding Swissport” and some of the facts stated in the inquiry’s report. “We can confirm that Acsa has gone out to tender. Swissport intends to submit a tender response,” the company said in response to a query by the Sunday Times.

“We want to point out that Swissport has not been found guilty of any crime or prosecuted for any alleged offence and is not precluded from submitting a tender response.

“The tender response will be adjudicated by [Acsa] in accordance with the terms of the tender and applicable laws.”

Swissport insists it has “a zero-tolerance policy towards bribery and corruption”. It said Ndzeku was removed as a shareholder and director after it investigated internally and found he was “high risk”.

But the Zondo report said Ndzeku only left Swissport in 2020, about the time he had to appear before the commission.

Acsa said its legal team is studying the Zondo report. In the meantime, no company, including Swissport, was barred from responding to the tender, which closes on February 18, Acsa said.

“While we cannot speak in great detail around the Swissport matter until our legal team has concluded their work in studying the Zondo state capture report, we are of the view that any organisation that deals/partners with Acsa should subscribe to and observe the highest ethical and corporate governance standards,” said Acsa spokesperson Refentse Shinners.